Hey Emmy, thanks a lot for this template! Right now, I’m writing a pre-launch press-release for my upcoming game Arcanox: Cards vs. Castles. I wanted to let you know, that the link to the AP Style Guidelines is not working anymore. Best regards, Christian
3. Dateline and lead paragraph. These elements range from 25 to 30 words and answer the who, what, why, when, where and how questions of your event. Keep the text simple and stick to the critical elements of the information. The format is: City, State, (name of service or publisher of the press release, e.g. GOOGLE), Month, Day, Year – details.
That being said, press releases today no longer hold the same SEO value they did several years ago, as Google started recognizing that some companies were using them to gain backlinks, rather than sharing news topics.
If you’ve identified the publication and the section you want to pitch your story to, and are just missing the correct journalist contact information, make sure you know where to find it. To begin with, you can use a limited free version of the sites below to begin your media list. Each allows you to look up email addresses and phone numbers for a few free contacts before asking for a fee:
Not only are you getting Newswire.com’s highly trusted press release distribution service, but you are also sending to PR Newswire™. The largest, oldest and most trusted distribution service in the world.
“There aren’t really a prescriptive number of pages or word count.” If I may add one important aspect from journalism school 101: any article for a newspaper (and a press release ideally ends up as an article “as if” the journalist had written it him/herself) needs to be structured in such a way, that you can clip from the end (!!!) without it losing stringency and closure. That is entirely different from creative writing. “A Winter’s tale” or an Agatha Christie whodunit would lose much, if not all, of its charm if you left out the last, say, two, paragraphs! But since (in the olden days) a piece of journalism needed to fit in with the rest of the layout (including advertising and late breaking news), whoever redacted a piece had to be able to cut off bits and pieces at the end without having to read, let alone reformulate the rest of the article. That said, this rule still stands today though space is not always a bottleneck in the digital world (but – you never know, maybe your press release even makes it into the print version!). So train yourself to write like a (good) journalist. If you don’t you could wonder for years what made your press releases fall by the wayside time and again.
Consider expanded distribution to hit more major mediums, albeit at an increased cost. For if you are a multinational company, consider worldwide distribution with AP Newswire syndication. If you are a domestic company, target national regions to hit every major news medium in the continental U.S., as opposed to the limited newsfeeds that are in your set geo-region.
What I like is that you guys do a QC check on releases!I’m not sure I’m reaching who I need to reach. That concerns me. Although I’m able to choose a sector I’m not sure if I’m getting to industry trades. It would be helpful if knowing which targets are being selected when you chose a specific s
The point of an evergreen release is to provide useful and interesting information that is, and will remain, relevant to your target audience. These releases give brands a chance to stretch their storytelling muscles. Be natural and focus on writing well in your evergreen release.
Ensure Your Kickstarter Has Everything Writers Want to See Because many games-to-be promoted on Kickstarter have not come to fruition with what they promised, writers are cautious about which Kickstarters they cover. To increase your chances of coverage, you must now, more than ever, show proof of progress and the ability to deliver. This of course includes an excellent video and other page assets, but many writers want to see a playable demo. (On your Kickstarter page, you reference a playable pre-alpha. Any chance you could derive a playable demo from something like that and make it available to the Kickstarter audience/press? It may help).
Proper keyword research and selection is important to optimizing a press release for SEO. Your press release should have at least one keyword target. At the same time do NOT stuff your press release with keywords. Googlebots will penalize you for this. Some important things to keep in mind while doing keyword research:
Before you start thinking a press release is going to solve all your publicity woes, now is a good time to note that by itself, a press release isn’t going to get you a lot of media attention. The average reporter or editor gets more press releases than he or she could possibly use. Your press release should be just one part of your media campaign.
Another point. When sending a press release to an editor, the best way to send it by copying and pasting the press release as text in the email. (Never send a press release as an attachment.) Here is the argument against my statement above. I always attach the press release to the email and I’ve never had a problem. My counter argument is, How many times have editors rejected your press releases due to it being an attachment and you did not even know this? Here is why I say put the press release as text in the email and NEVER send it as an attachment to an editor. 1) What program does the editor use to publish their press releases? InDesign or a web program. Translation: The editor or writer has to COPY AND PASTE your press release into another program to get it published. 2) An editor what? Received tons of emails every day. Put yourself in the editor’s shoes. The editor is trying to open and get through hundreds of emails every day. If an editor opens an email and finds text in the email, he/she/trans can IMMEDIATELY READ THE PRESS RELEASE and can decide IMMEDIATELY, if they want to publish it. If the press release is attached as a Word document, the email can easily be ignored or deleted. Also the editor, another writer or graphic designer can copy and paste the press release directly from the email into InDesign or a web program. Or they can copy and paste the press release into their own Word document WITHOUT having to TAKE THE TIME TO OPEN an attachment. Also, a publication might have a policy which DOES NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO OPEN AN ATTACHMENT due to the treat of viruses.
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There are so many different press release distribution websites that it can be confusing trying to figure out which ones to use. After years of distributing press releases, we have come up with a list of the best free and paid press release distribution websites. In no specific order, here are our favorite press release distribution websites –
To increase your chances of getting coverage on your press release, it needs to have an attention grabbing headline. It’s also imperative to send along images of the product to accompany the story. Don’t use the spray and pray method. Instead, tailor your press release to each person separately. That includes writing their name at the beginning and why the news is relevant to their audience. If possible, distribute your press release around a relevant event. Luckily, the product launch on the TV was right around CES so that helped with exposure.
Be sure to make clear what this information is for by saying for more information, promo requests or to set up an interview, please contact (so and so). Also, include the band and/or label’s website/MySpace page here.